“Amnesty International” demands from Aliaksandr
Lukashenka to introduce a moratorium on the death penalty. It was stated at
today’s press-conference by the organization’s researcher Heather McGill.

“Different people took part in the universal campaign for the death penalty
moratorium in Belarus.
All of them signed addresses to President Lukashenka for introducing a
moratorium on the use of the death penalty in Belarus, drafted by “Amnesty
International”.”

The Belarusian variant of the death penalty not only violates the right to life
– the UN Human Rights Committee also admitted it to be torture of relatives of
death convicts. “In particular, relatives aren’t given the body of burial, aren’t
informed about the place of the burial and are informed about the execution
long after its implementation,” stated Heather McGill.

According to her, no court system is secured from mistakes, and there is a
danger that death convicts Kanavalau and Kavaliou aren’t really guilty. “Even
victims of the terrorist case expressed doubts about it during the trial. That’s
why we ask Aliaksandr Lukashenka to pardon the convicts and introduce a
moratorium on the death penalty,” stated the AI representative.

The head of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee Aleh Hulak, the deputy head of the
Human Rights Center “Viasna”, the mother of the death convict Andrei Zhuk,
Sviatlana Zhuk and the mother of the death convict Uladzislau Kavaliou, Liubou
Kavaliova, took floor as well.

After the conference, Heather McGill and Belarusian human rights defenders
tried to pass 165,000 petitions from 30 countries with the request to introduce
a death penalty moratorium in Belarus.

However, the group of the Belarusian human rights defenders who brought 10
boxes with petitions to the Presidential Administration was forwarded to the
Main Post Office. The boxes were sealed and sent to the Presidential
Administration. The process was watched by the head of the Main Police Bureau
of the Minsk City Executive Committee, Aliaksandr Barsukou and the deputy head
of the security department, Maksim Hryshchanka.